Like Google's 'Do a Barrel Roll'? You'll Love These Other Easter Eggs

By now you've probably been charmed for a couple seconds by Google's latest coding stunt, which you can see by typing "do a barrel roll" in Google's search box.

You can also perform the same spinning motion when you do a Google search for "ZZ" or "RR"a reference to Nintendo's classic video game Star Fox 64. As Mashable notes, Peppy, the game's veteran space pilot rabbit, tells hero Fox McCloud to "do a barrel roll" which the player does by pressing "Z" or "R" twice.

In a statement, Google said the barrel roll query was created by a Google software engineer whose primary goal was to entertain users "while showcasing the power of CSS3, a presentation feature of modern browsers."

The stunt also works in mobile versions of Google search.

"Do a barrel roll" is what programmers call an "Easter egg." As we reported last year, there's a hidden world of harmless pranks coded just beneath the surface of many popular Web sites like YouTube, Facebook, and Google; undocumented tricks to entertain and amuse. Click on the slideshow below for eleven Easter Eggs and share more in the comments below.

Sara Yin is a junior analyst in the Software, Internet, and Networking group at PCmag.com, pouring most of her energy into app testing and security matters at Security Watch with Neil Rubenking. She lies awake at night pondering the state of mobile security (half-true).
Prior to joining PCMag.com, Sara spent five years reporting for publications in New York City (Huffington Post), Hong Kong (South China Morning Post), and Singapore (Campaign Asia, Men's Health).
Follow her on Twitter at @SecurityWatch and @sarapyin, or contact her the...
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